9 out of 10 users don’t know how to create a strong password

ON May 6, World Password Day is celebrated, an event that aims to raise awareness about the importance of having secure passwords that protect personal information.

Data from the Acierto.com comparator says that very few people or companies know how to properly protect their computers and Apps that need passwords.

Up to 89 per cent of those surveyed by the platform do not know how to create a secure password!

Among the most common mistakes is the use of personal data or obvious words, simplicity, not combining letters and numbers, and so on. Another common failure is to use the same password for different services, something that more than half of the respondents do.

They even found that 13 per cent use only one for all services. It is also common never to change them. Specifically, four out of five rarely change it and only 20 per cent do so at least every six months.

Beyond the password, Spanish users also carry out other risky behaviour that puts their security at risk.

Among the most common is not regularly updating computers (two out of five Internet users ignore the update notifications of their computers), not connecting through a secure network, not updating antivirus, not activating authentication in two steps of the services they use, not changing the password of their WiFi, and the result is that more than half have been affected by a computer virus.

At work, the issue becomes especially tricky in times of pandemic, when many companies have been forced to digitize at full speed and implement teleworking in record time which has also resulted in the lack of training for employees, the failure to implement the appropriate security systems and barriers and the absence of clear action protocols.

Due to this, it is now possible to obtain insurance against problems caused by lack of security so the Acierto.com comparator makes a series of recommendations.

A password must be unique and random, will avoid using the same one on several sites, as well as following a creation pattern such as, for example, the name of the service plus date of birth (or similar).

Limiting the use of common passwords is also important so avoid 12345678 and date of birth or name and other similar practices but do include special characters mixing uppercase and lowercase and the longer, the safer.